Female feticide: is it happening in Ontario?
A new study released Monday provides a first look at whether women from certain ethnic communities are practising sex-selective abortion in Ontario — and found “concerning trends” to suggest female feticide is happening.
Researchers caution, however, that the study is inconclusive and far more investigation needs to be done.
The St. Michael’s Hospital study analyzed 766,688 births in Ontario and found mothers born in South Korea and India were “significantly” more likely to have boys for their second child.
When it came to having a third child, the male-to-female ratio grew even more skewed for Indian-born mothers, who had 136 boys for every 100 girls.
By comparison, the ratio for Canadian-born mothers was 105 boys for every 100 girls — regardless of whether it was their first, second or third-born.
“Our findings raise the possibility that couples originating from India may be more likely than Canadian-born couples to use prenatal sex determination and terminate a second or subsequent pregnancy if the fetus is female,” reads the study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
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